Among flat panel display devices, thin film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD for short) devices with the features such as small sizes, low power consumption, relatively low manufacturing costs, and low radiation, hold a dominating position in the current market of flat panel display devices.
A TFT-LCD device substantially comprises an array substrate having TFTs arranged in an array, a color filter substrate aligned and assembled with the array substrate, and liquid crystal molecules packaged between the array substrate and the color filter substrate. In the current TFT-LCD industry, the color filter substrate can be manufactured substantially in the following steps: first forming a black matrix through one patterning procedure; forming a red color barrier, a green color barrier, and a blue color barrier on the black matrix respectively through three patterning procedures; then forming a flat panel electrode as a common electrode; and finally forming a spacer on the common electrode through one or two patterning procedures. The existing manufacturing process of the TFT-LCD color filter substrate are obviously complicated, thereby reducing the manufacturing efficiency of the TFT-LCD devices.
In connection with an In-Plane Switching (IPS for short) LCD device, the flat panel electrode will be unnecessary to be formed on the color filter substrate, and can be replaced with a flat layer. However, this does not make a difference in the present situation of relatively complicated manufacturing process of the color filter substrate.